Audience as Co-writers: Using Conversational AI to Deliver Audience Agency in a Participatory Drama

Abstract

This article will offer a glimpse into the elusive holy grail for participatory dramatists: a way to offer audience members a role within the narrative and to give them genuine agency over events and even the outcome. I will describe the use of a ‘conversational artificial intelligence’ as both a character in, and the co-writer with the audience of, a live theatrical drama, called I am Echoborg. This approach represents a novel and powerful means of delivering to audience members both narrative agency and the ability to take on a role in the drama. It also demonstrates how, in the right conditions, an AI can be a plausible and compelling dramatic character. I will explore some of the psychological mechanisms exploited in the creation of this immersive event such as breaching environments and projection of theory of mind. I will look at how some of the affordances of the technology can be exploited for dramatic purposes such as redirection. I will discuss some of the particular issues faced by makers of participatory narratives and methods to overcome them. I will trace the development of the show and look at some examples of other artworks that rely on user generated content and how they deal with quality control. Finally, I will look at the importance of structure as a means of balancing authorial voice and audience agency.